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The Charles C. Miller Apicultural Collection has an interesting history both in terms of its inspirational namesake and in how it came to be located at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Born in 1831, Charles C. Miller was a doctor, teacher, beekeeper, author, organizer of beekeeping associations and beloved adviser to generations of beekeepers. So devoted were his admirers that following his death in 1920 they literally pooled their honey money to build what would become one of the largest collections of beekeeping literature in the world. In 1922 the University of Wisconsin-Madison was awarded the gift of $1,957.53 ”to be used for the maintenance of a beekeeping library as a memorial to Dr. Miller.” A small endowment continues to fund additions to the collection which has grown to approximately 6,000 volumes.

Originally housed in Agriculture Hall, then moved to Steenbock Memorial Library in 1969, most of the books in the collection have since been transferred to the Department of Special Collections. Some of the monographs have been digitized through Google/Hathitrust and a recent CRL/USAIN Project Ceres award is providing seed money to fund the digitization of several of the rare periodicals.

The project currently covers digitization of the following 14 beekeeping serial titles:

Copyright

This compilation (including design, introductory text, organization, and descriptive material) is copyrighted by University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents.

This copyright is independent of any copyright on specific items within the collection. Because the University of Wisconsin Libraries generally do not own the rights to materials in these collections, please consult copyright or ownership information provided with individual items.

Images, text, or other content downloaded from the collection may be freely used for non-profit educational and research purposes, or any other use falling within the purview of “Fair Use“.